Obama endorses Louise Slaughter [corrected]

President Obama is backing longtime congresswoman Louise Slaughter in her upstate race against County Executive Maggie Brooks.

"America's middle class needs Louise Slaughter in Congress to stand up and fight for them,” said Obama in a release emailed by the Slaughter campaign.

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“Congresswoman Slaughter will create jobs here at home by building from the middle out, not the top down. She will protect Medicare for our seniors and education for our next generation. Middle class families can count on Louise and she needs your support on Election Day."

Slaughter chaired the Rules Committee when Democrats held the chamber for the first two years of Obama's term, and was in the middle of a possible negotiation to pass the health care bill through reconciliation, which would have allowed a number of Democrats not to record a vote on the bill. The "Slaughter Solution" was eventually abandoned, and a number of Democrats who voted for the bill lost their seats in 2010.

Obama had a 56 percent favorable rating in the district, according to a Siena poll earlier this week, with 41 percent of the district holding an unfavorable opinion. Among independents, Obama had a 51-46 favorable to unfavorable rating.

Slaughter led Brooks 52-42 in the poll.

CORRECTION: The original version this post incorrectly called the Salughter endorsement Obama's first in New York since the primaries. It is not.